A Season is Ending

The days are filled with last minute tasks that must be done. The checklists and piles of things to be done only seem to grow. It will all get done. It always does; someway, somehow. In a few days we head back to Canada. Our time at Bighorn, in the Montana mountains, draws to a close. A season is ending.

Its bittersweet I suppose. It’s hard to leave it all behind. At the same time I’m reminded of the laughs and adventures, the smiles and growth we now have to treasure and think back on: twelve kayaks and people dumped in Tumbleweed rapid, a sunrise over the mountains clear and bursting with brilliant color, evenings back at the lodge with friends and a hot cup of cocoa, that final push, a couple scrapes, and then victory after completing a hard climb, then the blizzard and fierce wind atop the ridge lines of our final trip. There were hard times too: a couple tiffs with a team mate, the hard push of class from breakfast till near supper, stuffy crowded dorm rooms, the winter cold putting everyone on edge, early mornings in the backcountry, and neoprene wet suits. It all taught us something though. And we were able to learn it together. That’s what it was, a season of learning, fun and growth.

Now we’re leaving. Some things seem over, and they are. But there is another feeling: expectancy. What’s next? The snow is melting. Everything we learned here, many of the friendships, we take with us. Canada here we come. A season is ending. What next?

Challen Iron

Challen is finishing his third year in Explore; his second year also as an Explore Intern. His internship is finished in April. A season is nearing its end. What next?